By Glen Tona, IBM
How has the cloud changed your world?
Think about it. The cloud has transformed our daily lives, whether it's for everyday use in business or how we use social media after work. It's become an increasingly essential technology for driving creativity and collaboration, capable of altering the very fabric of society.
As the cloud market grows, it’s crucial to make it even more accessible and comprehensive for startups. Though almost all startups today already use the cloud, the information technology (IT) industry needs to open up the cloud more broadly for startups. Doing so would serve to level the competitive playing field for existing companies and entrepreneurs around the world.
Here are three ways we can help startups use the cloud for its maximum potential:
1. Free access to the cloud: Young companies need a strong IT infrastructure to quickly launch their businesses and spend their resources and time on coding, building and scaling their innovations -- not fixing IT problems. However, many of the most promising companies remain strapped for cash when they’re just getting off the ground, which is why the tech industry needs more initiatives which give startups the free access to cloud power that they need. At IBM, for example, we’ve established the IBM Global Entrepreneur Program for Cloud Startups -- offering qualifying startups $120,000 worth of cloud usage.
2. Unlimited access to leading cloud tools: On top of a robust cloud infrastructure, early-stage startups also need access to the latest development tools in order to have a chance at competing with entrenched industry incumbents. They can build on top of these tools, which foster agility and flexibility to accelerate the innovation the tools can create at astounding rates.
3. Ability to get in front of large companies: Increasingly, larger companies don't necessarily view startups as competitors, but as problem solvers who can provide key tools for solving some of an industry’s greatest challenges. As a young company develops products and scales its business, its leaders also need to have a large amount of visibility and connections with large companies, with whom they can partner to bring their products into new markets.
This week my company announced new hybrid cloud technology that provides tools to help clients extend their business to the cloud.
Fueling innovation with cloud at this level of the ecosystem will not only help to accelerate the adoption of cloud within the tech industry, but also provide aspiring innovators with the right set of tools they need to turn their ideas into reality. I can't stress enough the importance of creating such ecosystems. I live at the Rainbow Mansion in Silicon Valley where people with common interests live in a 5,000-unit commune and work on projects -- beyond their day job -- to make the world a better place to live.
IBM's Bluemix Garage, where I work, is a physical location where developers, product managers and designers can collaborate with our experts to rapidly innovate and deliver new cloud apps. We can’t wait to see the thinkers, creators and inventors that will walk through our doors as a result of having the enormous power of cloud at their fingertips. If you’d like to be one of them, visit ibm.biz/CloudStartup
Glen Tona is a Software Developer for Cloud Platform Services, IBM.
A version of this blog appeared on IBM's A Smarter Planet blog on Nov. 11, 2014.
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